Mistery to me Maybe you can help?

Last weekend I went out and exposed about 16 sheets of PL100 8X10 and one roll of 120 Acros film.Started developing in Pyro HD as I normally do 2.2.100 with water stop bath and TF3 fixer.First sheet's were good I think I developed 5 first session.Next day another 5 sheets from those two came out with base fog like negatives developed in PMK. The last session first two negatives came out OK second third and fourth came out with base having a light blue color?In between those blue negatives I developed 120 roll of Acros which came out great.I have to mention I used three different boxes to fill my film holders.Two boxes I recently bought from J&C and one box from oversize negatives I have to cut to size to fit also from J&C.
Have any one experienced something like that, or I am doing something wrong? Any incite would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance Greg

Greg, if I understand you, that blue left over is from the anti-halation coating on the PL100. It can be fairly difficult to get rid of in my experience. More than once I've had to finish rinsing it off after fixing (I use tubes on a unicolor motor so don't see them until after the fix). Once in a while the back of the film 'attaches' itself to the tube wall and the coating doesn't get completely removed in the pre-soak as it should. If you let it wash again in some slowly running water for a few minutes, it should go. Cheers, Richard

Hi Richard
I know some time it is pink in color but with lot of washing it disappears. this time I washed negatives in excesses of 30 min. I presoaked film for 5 min . Only three negatives were light blue. Would this interfere with printing in any way?
Greg

I glued small plastic dimples all around the drum to space negative from the wall. I have been using it like that for six months with no problems. Could it be a problem with film batch? Next time I will use only one box to load negatives.The film negatives are coming from regular box of PL100 it has a little cut out on one side.
Thanks for the responses.
Greg

I think the plastic mesh idea is a good one. I'm a klutz and would end up scratching the film, probably, and have been looking for some tubes with all the 'spines' in them. The anti-halation layer has a definite pink and blue component. You can see both when the water is dumped. I've been through a number of boxes of PL100 in various sizes and only had this problem a couple of times. I would just re-wash it a while in running water, dry it, and then print it. I think it would have a definite impact if you printed WITH the blue dyes still there. But a 3-4 minute wash will get rid of it.
Cheers, Richard

It is definitely possible. I do not know how many sheets I used from each box. Next time I will load film from only one box to determine if all negatives are going to come out the same. Actually couple of sheets without a half circle at the bottom came out all right.

The "oversize" film from J&C probably isn't PL100 -- IIRC, that's a situation that's occurred only with their "house brand" Pro 100 film, which is entirely different from Efke. The blue base is what I'm used to seeing with Pro 100 in 120, but I have yet to develop any in sheet film. It also has different developing times from Efke (in rolls, I give it the same time I would 400TX), so might result in thinner or thicker negatives from the same exposure. And it likely also has a different "true speed" if you're one who goes through those tests.

Photography has always fascinated me -- as a child, simply for the magic of capturing an image onto glossy paper with a little box, but as an adult because of the unique juxtaposition of science and art -- the physics of optics, the mechanics of the camera, the chemistry of film and developer, alongside the art in seeing, composing, exposing, processing and printing.